Ensuring Access of Boys and Girls from Vulnerable Families to the Kindergarten and Giving Mothers a Chance to Find a Job in Rural Moldova: Hincauti commune

The Hincauti commune is located in Northern part of Moldova, over 200 km away from Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. The commune consists of three villages – Hincauti, Cliscauti, and Poiana – all of them with a very diverse background. The village of Hincauti is the largest of the three, and is mainly populated with Romanian-speaking ethnic Moldovans, the majority of whom are Christian Orthodox. The other two smaller villages are mainly populated by the Ukrainian and Russian speaking ethnic Ukrainians, the majority of whom are Adventists, Pentecostals, and Jehovah Witnesses. The overall population of the entire community is 1568 persons.

The local kindergarten was built in 1986 and before August 2012 had the capacity of only 44 places, that was well below the needs of the commune. The key problem was the outdated stove heating system, that kept the kindergarten building cold during the winter time, and was the reason for low attendance by kids (majority of parents refused to enroll their child in the kindergarten because of the low interior temperature). Also, the lack of adequate heating made extension of the building impossible, leaving children deprived of access to pre-school education. This had an additional negative impact on the mothers who had to stay home to take care of their children with little hope to get a job, and very limited possibility to deal with family or personal issues outside the village.

The installation of the new modern heating system, which made it possible to create and renovate additional space for the new group, the kindergarten can now accommodate 20 more girls and boys (64 children in total) from Hincauti, Cliscauti, and Poiana villages.

Change came with the community mobilization for empowerment project supported by the Joint Integrated Local Development Programme of the Government of Moldova, implemented by UNDP and UN Women, funded by the Government of Sweden (JILDP) in Hincauti. As a part of the community profiling exercise a lack of access to pre-school education among the children from poor, single-parent and many-children families with different ethnic and religious background as well as children with disabilities, was identified as one of the key human rights and gender concern in the village. Acknowledgement of the problem by the local public authorities and women and men of the community was the first step of the community mobilization. Next, the Programme team helped forming a community initiative group of parents and kindergarten educators to advocate for addressing the situation and including it in the Hincauti Local Socio-Economic Strategy as one of the community development priorities.

Supported by JILDP, the initiative group developed a project proposal on extension and renovation of the kindergarten building. Development of the project proposal was carried out through wide consultative and participatory process and involved community women and men and representatives of local public authorities and public institutions. Once developed by the community, the proposal received a financial support of the JILDP.

Community initiative group composed of parents and teachers closely monitored the kindergarten extension throughout the whole process to make sure that all of their needs were addressed by the project.

With the project accomplishment, 64 children, 37 boys and 27 girls received access to the improved kindergarten facilities, thus being able to exercise their right to education.

Also, with the kindergarten extension 5 mothers have already found jobs with the extension of the kindergarten. The Association of Parents of Hincauti will continue monitor the employment opportunities of mothers.

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